Movie Review: 28 Weeks Later

While "28 Days Later" traveled from virus-devastated London into a countryside just as dangerous, the impressive, jolting "28 Weeks Later" reverses that transit --- and pretty much destroys what's left of England's capital once it returns there. Bloodier and more action-filled than the original, "Weeks" nevertheless stays faithful to the grim, grimy tone director Danny Boyle established in his 2002 film with its haunting shots of a metropolis turned into a tomb.

A prologue unfolds in the first weeks of England's contamination by the so-called Rage virus, which turns the exposed into red-eyed, bloodthirsty, fast-moving zombie-ish maniacs who want one thing only: to rip their teeth into the flesh of the still-healthy.

At a barricaded farmhouse, a group of survivors, including spouses Don (Robert Carlyle) and Alice (Catherine McCormack), are preparing an early-evening meal from their stores of canned goods. Then somebody knocks on the door. ... And, in the first of many unnerving action sequences, it's clear that the infected are as scary in full sunlight as they are at night.

The opening sequence, with spouts of blood and whirling camerawork, shows that Boyle knew what he was doing when he handpicked the director, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, who made the fascinating Spanish film "Intacto" (2001). The new movie has a bigger budget and effects (chemical weapons! fireballs!), but Fresnadillo embellishes the first film's central notion: As bad as the blood-puking hordes of the infected may be, they're less dangerous than some uncontaminated humans --- especially those in uniform.

Flash-forward: six months later. All the infected have died, and London's Isle of Dogs is being converted into a repopulation center for survivors, run by a U.S.-led NATO force.

Uh-oh ...

If "28 Days Later" was a year too early to find analogies to the war in Iraq, the sequel is all over it. The guide on a bus ferrying survivors into the city's "Green Zone" cheerfully assures her passengers, "The U.S. Army is responsible for your safety." And, of course, everyone thinks nothing can go wrong. This follows a scene showing armed U.S. soldiers whiling away their time with nothing to do. "Give us something to shoot," one yells.

Stick around, pal.

You don't have to appreciate the built-in politics to enjoy (if that's the right word) the movie. It centers on Don's reunion with his children Andy (Mackintosh Muggleton) and Tammy (Imogen Poots), who were out of the country when Rage first spread.

How the virus returns and what happened to the children's mother are worth finding out on your own. But it won't surprise you to learn that the characters are soon running all over London (along with Rose Byrne as an Army medic and Jeremy Renner as a soldier) trying not to get bitten. Or shot to death by the Army when their Code Red reaction to the outbreak is revealed to be very red indeed. As in blood red.

The film also features Harold Perrineau as a helicopter pilot there primarily to outdo, splatter-wise, a similar scene from "Grindhouse" involving a chopper and an army of zombies. (Both scenes are indebted to the original "Dawn of the Dead," with its copter blades neatly parting a zombie from the crown of its skull.)

Fresnadillo keeps the action tense and choppy, using the same visual palette --- and occasional speeded-up camera tricks --- as Boyle did in the first film. And he has a mournful, painterly eye for a trash-strewn yet empty London.

The movie isn't perfect. While the focus on family lends extra psychological depth (and extra horror), the narrowed viewpoint and a few too many coincidental encounters with one particular member of the infected remind you that this is a movie.

That said, it's one horror flick that pulls no punches. Good luck trying to guess exactly which characters will make it out alive.

And even those who do? Well, let's just say that this movie's idea of a happy ending is more than a little twisted. ...